Most of the ensuing drama was about whether Eliezer was right in deleting it. The whole thing has been a waste of everybody's time and attention (as community drama over moderation almost always is).

'Moderation' was precisely the opposite of the response that occurred. Hysterical verbal abuse is not the same thing as deleting a post and mere censorship would not have created such a lasting negative impact. While 'moderator censorship' was technically involved the incident is a decidedly non-central member of that class.